Fart. I hope I can get this done on time, fart fart. Fart. Participation is (fart) worth two letter grades. I’ve given fart lots of good feedback. It was on time, fart. Please excuse my terrible gas.

Details fart matter. Grammar matters, fart fart fart. I seem to have a strange fart fetish. Could I fart expand right here a little? Fart fart fart. Ralph Waldo Emerson, fart fart fart:
“A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace” (60).

when i wrote aeroplane, i spent 90 percent of my time screaming nonsence
into my little tape recorder, or chopping up sounds with my sound blender, or
just making noise, and 10 percent of my time writing songs. it was very liberating,
because i never thought about what i was doing, and a week before we went to record i didnt even think we had a half finished album. but i didnt care. i figured if we went the studio,and only recorded one finished song, then that would be fine. creating just one minute ofsomething inspiring is an incredibly fun thing to do. so next time you hear that neutral milkis recording, dont get your hopes up. it may only be one minute of music.

major organ was just a bunch of friends putting music together for fun. it was a project
that changed hands at least a dozen times, and most of the time you didnt even know who was working on it,and you never knew where it would go. released mostly to inspire other dreamers and home recorders to do the same with there friends. we weren't trying to create a masterpiece. trying to do anything is the of death of creativity, and if we can encourage people to not try, but to just do, then we have accomplished our goal.

*****

"I think what Elephant 6 meant for us is very simple: there's something pure and infinite in you, that wants to come out of you, and can come out of no other person on the planet. That's as real and important as the fact you're alive. We were able, at a really young age, to somehow protect each other so we could feel that. The world at large, careerism, money, magazines, your parents, the people at the rock club in your town, other kids, nothing is going to gvie you that message, necessarily. In fact, most things are going to lead you away from it, sadly, because humanity is really confused at the moment. But you wouldn't exist if the universe didn't need you. And any time I encounter something beautiful that came out of a human somewhere, that's them, that's their soul. That's just pure, whatever its physicality is, if the person can play piano, if they can't play piano, if they're tone deaf, whatever it is, if it's pure, it hits you like a sledgehammer. It fills up your own soul, it makes you want to cry, it makes you glad you're alive, it lets *you* come out of *you*. And that's what we need: we desperately need *you*."

--Julian Koster, circa 2005, from the book about the making of Aeroplane. Julian has appeared with Jeff on many of the recent tour dates.

*****

Comments made during his Fall tour, From: http://blog.beatgoeson.com/2011/08/15/mangumreview/

JM: Anybody have any questions? Not that I have any answers, but . . .
Fan: Will there be a new album?
JM: I don’t have any fucking idea. I didn’t think I’d be doing this.
Fan: We’re glad you are.
JM: I’m glad I am too. I think it’s good for me, I dunno . . .
Fan: Have you been writing new songs?
JM: I go through periods of writing. I mean, if something came out of my heart naturally I’d put it out, but I’m not gonna make another record because of . . . whatever . . . all the other bullshit.
[applause]

*****

Comments on his creative process in a 2002 interview: http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/5847-neutral-milk-hotel/

Pitchfork: Is this reframing process something you use in your songwriting in general? Do the songs come out of fragments?

Jeff: Yeah, usually I create tunes that are fragmented. I think the biggest obstacle for people with their creativity is that they feel they have to sit down and create this finished, polished product. Especially nowadays, it's so easy to have a library of two thousand CDs, books and records. So many things. We're used to having all of these finished works of art in our life that seem to arise out of nothing. I think that so much of the creative process is a fragmentary one, and then it's about just allowing your intuition to put it together for you. It's funny how you create something and you think you're going in a million different directions, and then the thing you end up with is the thing that you wanted to create your whole life, but you're just as surprised by it as anybody else.

*****

The only thing the myth has done for Aeroplane is, perhaps, given the album more exposure. But time and time again, the album justifies its own stature in the ears of a new listener. When I saw Jeff perform I brought a close friend who knew nothing of the songs and nothing of the myth. After the performance my friend was glowing, saying it was one of the most amazing concerts she has ever been to. Many in the audience knew all of the lyrics by heart, even though most were probably in preschool when Aeroplane was first released. Such a following is not gained through luck alone--Jeff is a rare talent, and I hope the myth of Aeroplane does not stop him from taking the next great risk and daring new material.
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